Zerg has one way to play and if you deviate you die

General Discussion
1

Zerg is the least dynamic race in the game. All Zerg can do now is defensively sit back and spam a dozen queens and creep tumors, and just wait to get slapped around non-stop by your opponent for 10-15 minutes. Zerg is the “get punched in the face race,” with basically no options for retaliation, or any counter damage.

All of our timing attacks have been nerfed. Basically all of our units have been nerfed, and half of our units are not even viable anymore. Even if you survive until T3, there’s nothing great on Hive tech that’s going to work except for Lurker Hydra Viper. That’s our one unit comp, and if you build anything else, you’ve basically thrown the game unless you’re outrageously far ahead and outplaying your opponent at a 2:1 ratio.

Ultras are not viable because they have no push priority on smaller units, so they can never trade in a remotely cost efficient way, and Brood Lords have been nerfed out of the game by the super Thor which kills Brood Lords at a 1:2 ratio of Thor to Brood Lord. So, even the old adage of “Survive until T3” doesn’t even work.

Zerg players are quitting this game like crazy, and now we’re up to almost 50% Protoss in Grandmaster too. I feel like Terran has an advantage against Zerg at every stage of the game as well unless you play the most super cookie cutter Zerg style, meanwhile Terran has literally 20 builds they can choose from, and they’re all viable.

Why did I pick Zerg ten years ago? What a mistake that was.

2

yeah i noticed all of my zerg opponents pretty much play the exact same way except they each do it better or worse, with tvp and tvt people are more aggressive or less aggressive and have different playstyles.

3

Now you know how Protoss players feel against playing Zerg.

2 Likes
4

Every race is more or less forced to play in some way. In pvt you must do some kind of timing, it works better than straight macro, in pvz you must do a timing or die. T gameplay, the same, they must do some kind of timing on every matchup, straight up macro is not really good. Z always must play macro, it works for them the best, the cheeses or timings are just average compared to the results of macro gameplay.

1 Like
5

I would not say people are leaving like crazy from leaving Zerg. Overall Starcraft is very popular right now compared to the past, and Zerg is as popular as it was during almost whole year (unless you mean changes from end of 2019, then it is true that some Zergs left the game). But now the population seem to be stable.

About Grandmaster.
The origin is Free To Play patch 15th November 2017, which changed a lot of about gameplay. After it, Protoss’ representation in GM was increasing, followed by a few balance patches in November 2017-March 2018. Protoss established it’s majority around 2 weeks before November 2018 patch (which indeed caused Zerg players to further within the league).

But during year 2018, even while Protoss were overperforming, Zergs were overperforming even more. And Zerg’s overwhelming results could not stop Protoss increase into the league.
(poor Terrans btw, it must have been very difficult to play in 2018 for them)

My theory is that Nov 2017 changes made Terran more difficult to play, and some Terrans just lost their spot in GM, while leaving space for Protoss players. Zerg’s population remained pretty stable. In the origin, the reason was not Zerg’s nerfs.

Now everything seems to even out in terms of strength of races. Perhaps the Terran GM population left the game in 2018 because of how bad the race was.

Ðióġeŋex
I believe GM meta is defined by most OP strategies in the game. If you do an average strategy in strength (please ignore Has’ and Bly’s existance) it falls behind to most effective strategies your opponent is going to use, because it’s simply not optimal. The lower league you are, the weaker strategies may work equally or even better than those presented on top level.

There are many 2 base all-in strategies (2-3 hatcheries), 1 base all-in (2 hatcheries), or pressures with transition into macro that work well in Diamond for Zerg.

But if on top level of play everyone plays the most effective strategies, then who is to blame, if you need to play most effectively as well? Designs of races allows usually just a few optimal scenarios we see in tournaments with different variations.

Zerg has many nice tools to use in mid-game, including mutas, nydus (yes, it still works), swarm hosts (still works too), zerglings, banelings attacks, and general army compositions.

1 Like
6

Yes, In diamond almost everything can work, I usually do some fast 7 roach in zvt and it usually works really well and its really agressive and something you never see in pro gameplay. And then you have Noregret, the dude can cheese his way up to top GM in kr with no control groups and never getting a single hive.
People who are not GM and aiming to tournament level should play their own style and try to have fun instead of playing the more boring and standard styles copied from pro players.

2 Likes
7

i disagree you can really mix it up as terran although im more of a one build kindof person.

8

Same reason you play it now! It’s ez mode you only sit defensively spam drones/quens/creep and win in late game

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!

wE have pRobLem here.

In last 2 years Zerg was OP as hell so ure rank skyrocketed and now when ure finally close to balanced it’s painful to watch rank go down where it was 2 years ago i know i was Master and after ur buffs i went down to dia3 at some point it ain’t pretty experience

9

Zerg can do anything and win. They can just go 2 base muta and beat 3-4 base Terran for free. They just get free money it’s ridiculously op

10

I’m with you, as a fellow Z player. Truly makes me frustrated knowing I can’t push in against T or P, I’m always having to rely on them being positioned incorrectly and take a good fight. Even then, it ends up being a trade of army and then trying to remax as quickly as possible to defend the next push. It takes about 2 full army trades as Z before I can attempt to deny an expo and even then the game hangs by a thread.

1 Like
11

llllllllllll,
You don’t need to be shy, I am not going to say anything about it.
I had genuine interest, but well, it doesn’t matter anymore.
Have a nice day.

12

What’s the point of using a barcode in platinum league?